Alien Big Dog
Alien Big Dog or Phantom Dog is a dog equivalent of Europe’s Alien Big Cat. Some livestock-ravaging cryptids have a decidedly canid look, though in most respects they behave similarly to the mystery cats. Like a large dog but with certain peculiar features. Dark color. Small ears. Long snout. Short legs. Long tail. Kills livestock but often only drinks the blood instead of eating the animal. Clawed tracks. Sightings An unknown animal killed as many as seven or eight sheep each night by cutting their throats and drinking their blood near Ennerdale Water, Cumbria, England, from May to September 1810. Will Rotherby, who was knocked down by the beast, described it as lionlike, though most observers thought it a dog. A dog was killed on September 12, after which the killings stopped. A mystery animal killed sheep, as many as thirty in one night, from January to April 1874, in County Cavan, Ireland, and later near Lim-erick. Throats were cut and blood sucked, but the sheep were not eaten. From July to December 1893, a dog-sized an-imal with a long snout and a long tail attacked women and children near Trosna, Orël Region, Russia. At least one child and two women were said to have been killed. Repeated attempts by hunters to shoot or capture the animal failed, though it apparently ate some poisoned sheep set as bait and disappeared beyond the Vytebet’ River. In fact, more than one beast may have been involved, possibly a big cat and a smaller dog. In November 1905, a mystery animal killed sheep in the area around Great Badminton, South Gloucestershire, England, leaving the flesh almost untouched, but the blood had been lapped up. A lion-headed, maned, hairless mystery ani-mal on the Isle of Wight, England, was killed in 1940; it turned out to be a fox in an advanced state of mange. A dog the size of a small pony was seen on Dartmoor, Devon, England, by policeman John Duckworth in 1969 and 1972. In the mid-1990s, a pair of unusual animals was killed near Slatina, 9 miles southeast of Cˇacˇak in Serbia. Slightly bigger than pit bulls, they had short legs, long snouts, and no tails. They had been killing chickens and livestock and drinking their blood. A similar animal was killed near Malá Kopasˇnica, about 100 miles to the southeast. Near Gornja Gorevnica, Serbia, in November 2000, many sheep were found killed by an animal that made a tiny incision in their necks and drank their blood. More than 150 hunters went to Jelica Mountain to hunt for the beast, but they found nothing. Some thought that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces had introduced predators to destroy Serbian livestock. In the summer of 2001, a mystery animal around Novi Knezˇevac, Serbia. Sheep weighing as much as 200 pounds were found slaughtered, and the guard dogs remained silent. Possible explanations * The Gray wolf (Canis lupus) has been ex-tinct in England since 1486, in Scotland since 1743, and in Ireland since about 1770. Russia has always been a stronghold for wolf populations, which have actually increased since World War II. Attacks on people by wolves are extremely rare, except for the oc-casional rabid specimen. In the twentieth century, the only evidence for such attacks involved some unconfirmed reports from Italy that wolves had attacked and killed unaccompanied young children. In the absence of natural wild prey, wolves will go after livestock, especially in the winter. Sheep, carrion, and domestic dogs were found to be their most frequent prey, according to one study in Spain. * A feral Domestic dog (Canis familiaris), especially a hound or other large breed or crossbreed. * Wolf x dog hybrids occur more fre-quently as wolf populations become more isolated. Hybrids have been reported throughout Southern Europe. * Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) turned up in Yorkshire, England, in 1983 and North Wales in 1990. * A few Coyote cubs (Canis latrans) are said to have been introduced around 1881 in Epping Forest, Essex, England. * A giant variety of Pine marten (Martes martes), suggested by Andrew Gable. Category:It's Something Category:Cryptozoology Category:Cryptids Category:Blood-sucking Category:Carnivore Category:Canine Category:Mammals